Arab states up the pressure on Qatar

BLACKLIST: CITING 18 TERROR LINKS TO THE COUNTRY

Also demand that Qatar now prosecutes these extremists.

Riyadh

Saudi Arabia and its allies unveiled a “terrorist” blacklist yesterday of 18 organisations and individuals suspected of links with Islamist extremism that they said had ties with Qatar.

The move by the four Arab governments came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt blacklisted nine charity and media organisations and nine individuals “directly or indirectly linked to Qatari authorities” as “terrorist”, a joint statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency said. “We expect Qatari authorities to take the next step and prosecute the terrorist groups and people,” the statement added.

The four governments have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years. They sealed the emirate’s only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping. They demanded Qatar break its longstanding ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a “terror group” by the four governments. They also demanded it close broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera and a Turkish military base and follow Saudi-led policy in the region. Qatar dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally, Turkey.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has voiced satisfaction with Qatar’s efforts to address any suspicion of terror funding.

The four governments yesterday blacklisted three organisations in Yemen and six in Libya citing ties to al-Qaeda. They also blacklisted three Qataris, three Yemenis, two Libyans and a Kuwaiti they said were implicated in “fundraising campaigns to support al-Nusra Front and other terrorist militias in Syria”. –